CAPTAIN KIRK WANTS TO LOSE HIS UNIQUE PLACE IN RUGBY HISTORY

13th August 2007

Auckland, Aug 10 NZPA - Former All Blacks skipper David Kirk says he and his one-time teammates want to rid themselves of their unique place in international rugby.

Kirk and 12 other members of the squad who won the inaugural World Cup in 1987 today had their first reunion -- at Auckland\'s Eden Park, the scene of their 29-9 triumph over France in the final.

The halfback, who scored one of the All Blacks\' three tries that June afternoon, flew in from Sydney, where he is chief executive of newspaper publishing company Fairfax Media Ltd.

"I think it surprises and frustrates all of us that there\'s not been another New Zealand team who\'s won the World Cup," he told a lunch organised by the Halberg Trust.

"To a man, we would be delighted if we weren\'t unique. We\'re looking to the 2007 team doing the job."

Kirk said he had no doubts that present skipper Richie McCaw and his players had the goods to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy in Paris in October.

But he cautioned that potential was one thing, they still had to do the business on the field.

"They\'ve got a better than even chance for sure," he told NZPA.

"They\'re the best team going into the tournament and they\'re very well balanced.

"They are good in the set pieces. They have attacking loose forwards, a great first-five in Daniel Carter and lots of power to finish in the backs.

"But you have to do it in the tournament. You\'ve got to turn that talent into a campaign, which means selecting the right team, building in the pool matches and going up to the another level during the tournament."

Kirk saw Australia, South Africa, France and England as key dangers to New Zealand in France.

He disagreed with the view that the All Blacks, while world-beaters between World Cups, faltered under the pressure at the business end of the tournament.

None of the failures to win the trophy since 1987 could be attributed to "choking", he said.

The All Blacks either had not been good enough or they were beaten by sides who played way above themselves.

"All teams play their best matches against New Zealand because they know that to win the World Cup they have to beat New Zealand," he said.

"That\'s what happens when you\'re the best team in the world. You have to live with that."

Kirk was given the on-field captaincy for the 1987 World Cup after skipper Andy Dalton suffered a hamstring injury before the tournament.

Dalton was at the reunion, as were Warwick Taylor, Bernie McCahill, Grant Fox, Wayne Shelford, Alan and Gary Whetton, Andy Earl, Albert Anderson, Murray Pierce, Richard Loe and Steve McDowell.

Kirk, Taylor, Fox, Shelford, the Whettons, Pierce and McDowell played in the final.

For the All Blacks, the tournament came with the controversy of the 1985 Cavaliers\' rebel tour of South Africa and the sobering defeat to a dominant French side in Nantes late 1986 still fresh in the mind.

As they now reminisced, they realised it was a special time and they were part of a special team, Kirk said.

"Everything came together through some strange alchemy that none of us could predict," he said.

"We look back on it with wonder and a great deal of gratitude that we were the players who did the business for New Zealand then."

Kirk appeared in one more test, his 17th, a month later against Australia before retiring from international rugby at 26 and later taking up a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford University in England.

Now 45, he was happy he played when he did and said missing out on professional rugby offered no disappointment.

"I\'ve got no regrets." he said.

"Coming back and seeing all the players I played with, I\'m just absolutely delighted that the era I played in was, I think, the best."

By Robert Lowe of NZPA

Source: NZPA Auckland Credit: NZPA